London, Chatham and Dover Railway
The
London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR) was a railway company that operated in south-eastern
England between
1859 and
1923 before
grouping with three other companies to form the
Southern Railway. Its lines ran through
London and eastern/northern
Kent, and formed a significant part of the Greater London commuter network. From the start the railway was in an impecunious position.
Although the Chatham, as it was always known, was subject to much criticism for its often lamentable carriage stock and poor punctuality, in two respects at least it was very good: it used the highly effective Westinghouse brake on its passenger stock, and the Sykes 'Lock and Block' system of signalling. It was actually a line with an excellent safety record.
The LCDR began life as the
East Kent Railway (EKR). Its first line was that from
Strood near
Rochester to
Faversham, opened in two parts:
** 29 March 1858:
Strood -
Chatham, with a station at Rochester
** 25 January 1858: Chatham -
Faversham, with stations at
Gillingham (originally called
New Brompton),
Rainham,
Sittingbourne,
Teynham, and
Faversham.
* 22 November 1858: The
Mid-Kent Railway constructed a line from Bromley Junction (near
Norbury) to
Bickley. This line connected with the
West End of London & Crystal Palace Railway (WELCPR) which later provided the necessary access to London.At this stage the EKR changed its name to the LCDR (1859), even though, as yet, Dover had not been reached..
*
1860 openings:
** 9 July
1860: Faversham -
Canterbury (now the East station) -
Whitstable (old station)
** 19 July 1860:
Sittingbourne & Sheerness Railway, which became part of LCDR from 1866), including
Queenborough.
Sheerness railway station dates from 1883: the original terminus became the freight depot. There are branch lines to Queenborough Pier and Sheerness Dockyard.
** 3 December
1860: opening of line between Bickley and Rochester, connecting the two parts of the network; opening of
St Mary Cray,
Farningham Road and Rochester Bridge stations (the latter being closed in
1917)
*
1861 openings:
**
Meopham and
Sole Street stations
** 22 July 1861: extension from Canterbury East to
Dover, with
Bekesbourne,
Adisham,
Shepherd's Well and Dover Priory stations opening with the line.
** 31 July 1861: Whitstable to
Herne Bay** 1 November 1861: Route to Victoria station opened: LCDR first access to London
*
1862 openings:
** 2 June 1862: the
Sevenoaks Railway opened from Sevenoaks Junction (now
Swanley Junction) to
Sevenoaks. Worked by LCDR, with stations at
Eynsford,
Shoreham,
Otford, and
Sevenoaks Bat & Ball ** 1 July 1862:
Swanley station (then named Sevenoaks Junction)
** 6 October 1862: stations along the WELCPR line towards Victoria opened: including
Penge East, Sydenham Hill,
Herne Hill, and
Clapham. Dulwich [now West Dulwich] station was also opened.
*
1863 openings:
** Wandsworth Road station
** 5 October 1863: Herne Bay to
Ramsgate.
Birchington-on-Sea,
Margate, and
Broadstairs stations all opening with the line
* 1 June 1864: the first section of railway to serve the
City of London, when the line from Herne Hill to Blackfriars Bridge station (south of the river), was opened
* 1 June 1865:
Ludgate Hill station opened (closed 3 March 1929) across the river. In 1886, St Pauls station was opened by the
London, Chatham and Dover Railway: it was reached on a parallel bridge across the river.
*
1872 openings:
**
Longfield ** Loughborough Road (the first station at what is now
Loughborough Junction station)
* 1 June
1874: Otford to
Maidstone East line, with
Kemsing,
Borough Green,
West Malling,
Barming and
Maidstone East stations opening with the line
* 15 June
1881: Dover Priory to
Deal,
Dover & Deal Joint Railway (LCDR/
South Eastern Railway)
* 1 July
1884: Maidstone East to
Ashford with intermediate stations opening at
Bearsted,
Hollingbourne,
Harrietsham,
Lenham, and
Charing* 1 October
1884 Kent House, west of Beckenham Junction
On 1 January 1899 the undertaking of the LCDR was, by arrangement, joined with that of the South Eastern Railway for united working under a Management Committee composed of the directors of the two Companies. The arrangement was confirmed by
Act of Parliament on 5 August 1899 by the
South Eastern and London, Chatham and Dover Railway Act 1899.
The rolling stock and steamboats of the two companies were thereafter worked as one concern. Some rationalisation of competing stations occurred but it was not fully resolved. Between
1902 and
1904, connections were built to allow LCDR trains through running on ex-SER lines, notably in the Bickley area where the two main lines crossed. The rationalisation of the lines in Thanet to create a line which ran through from Margate via Ramsgate to Minster did not take place until after the grouping. The former Ramsgate Harbour station of the Chatham, accessed via a line through a tunnel leaving the current line near what is now Dumpton Park, then became part of the beach facilities. See
South Eastern and Chatham Railway] and
South Eastern Railway.
Principal engineering works
* Blackfriars Bridge: 933 ft (279 m) long
* Battersea Bridge: 740 ft (222 m)
* Viaduct carrying extension to Blackfriars: 742 brick arches, 94 girder bridges
Steepest gradient
* Rochester Bridge - Sole Street: five miles at 1:100
Tunnels
* Shepherd's Well Tunnel: 2376 yd (2138 m)
* Sydenham Hill Tunnel: 2200 yd (1980 m) - this was allegedly Queen Victoria's least favourite tunnel
Locomotive Works
* The locomotive works were at Longhedge, in Battersea, and the old erecting shop can still be seen. The former SER works at Ashford took over locomotive building for the joint concern, but some building work at Longhedge continued for a few years.
Rolling stock
Both the South Eastern and London, Chatham and Dover Railway companies's locomotives were painted black each with their own style of lining but, when taken over by the South Eastern and Chatham Railways Managing Committee (SE&CR), dark green was adopted with an elaborate lining scheme. After some trials with a hybrid colour scheme (SER maroon on the upper parts and LC&DR teak on the lower), the SE&CR adopted the dark maroon/lake livery for passenger stock. Ex-LC&DR locomotives were renumbered by adding 459 to the running numbers (ie locomotive No 1 became No 460, etc); SER locomotives retained their existing mumbers.
For a small and indigent company the Chatham was lucky in its locomotive engineers. After a very patchy start, with a miscellany of Cramptons and other oddities, it had two very competent engineers.
William Martley was appointed in 1860, and commissioned some very effective performers, notably the 0-4-2 well tanks of the 'Scotchmen' (1866) and 'Large Scotchmen' (1873) classes for the suburban services; and the 'Europa' class (1873) of 2-4-0s, which ran the mail trains to and from Dover, the Chatham's crack service.
William Kirtley came from the Midland Railway in 1874, following the death of Martley. He was the nephew of
Matthew Kirtley, the Midland's famous locomotive superintendent. Kirtley produced a series of execllent designs, robust and good performers - the A series of 0-4-4 tanks for suburban services, the B series of 0-6-0 goods engines; the T class of shunting engines; the M series of 4-4-0 express passenger engines; and a final R series of enlarged 0-4-4 tanks.
These rather than Stirling's Ashford products formed the basis for SE&CR development under Wainwright, not least because it was Robert Surtees from Longhedge who led design work for the succesor organisation. The R series led to the SE&CR's R1 and subsequent H class; the Bs to the famous C class; and the Ms to the D and E classes, which in their rebuilt Maunsell form may have been the best British inside-cylinder 4-4-0s.
In 1923 the LCDR and the SER, the
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR), and the
London and South Western Railway (LSWR) were joined to form the
Southern Railway.
*
The South Eastern & Chatham Railway (O.S.Nock, Ian Allen Ltd,1961) - particularly for the EKR history
*
Railway Year Book 1912 (Railway Publishing Company)
*
Railways of the Southern Region (Geoffrey Body, PSL Field Guide, 1989)
*
"The Locomotives of the London Chatham and Dover Railway", D L Bradley, Railway Correspondence and Travel Society, 1960
